ALICE IN WONDERLAND FILM POSTER
How does the mise en scene and camera angle/ composition within the poster communicate concepts and connotations to the audience?
Alice in Wonderland - released in 2010 and directed by Tim Burton is a remake of one of the most famous and intriguing plots originally written by Lewis Carroll in 1865. The story can be interpreted in many different ways and metaphors and similarly with the film poster, there’s a lot of different elements that make it interesting, mainly the color, characters, and setting.
The setting of the poster is in wonderland - where nothing makes sense and we can see this instantly. The main focuses are the white rabbit, the mad hatter, and Alice, in the midst of them there are mushrooms and other mysterious plants which gives off a psychedelic effect – tying in nicely with the plot and author (who was rumored to be on psychedelic drugs while writing the book).
There is lots to be said about the mise en scene, the costumes and makeup being one of the first things you notice. The mad hatter's appearance draws the most attention to the viewers – he looks completely out of the ordinary as does the white rabbit and this contrasts with Alice as she is wearing just a simple blue dress. The fact that the mad hatter is the centerpiece of the movie poster shows that Alice is an intruder in their world; an outsider in the world that she created. She’s out of control and is confused by the new reality she’s faced with, the mad hatter is the one who’s really in control – we can see this through the costume and makeup of him which aligns with the location and film.
The tone looks mysterious but also upbeat - the facial expressions give away a lot about how the characters are feeling, whilst Alice looks understandably curious, the other characters seem to be taking everything in their stride which gives us some reassurance. The movement of the Mad hatter looking like he’s skipping shows us that this is completely normal for him. The white rabbit is positioned lower down, telling us that he is not as relevant in the story. While the bright colors and the positioning of the mad hatter connote a happy tone, we know that it gets darker as the film goes on. The font of the text at the top could represent the trees and eerily atmosphere
The theme of gender isn’t really applicable to this but status somewhat is – Alice comes from high-class background and lives an ordinary life, her status in her ‘real’ world is high, however in wonderland the status works completely differently – where she is of a lower status which creates contrast as she isn’t used to this new hierarchy.
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